The Internet, which is a human centered connectivity network where humans generate and consume information, is now evolving to the Internet of Things (IoT) where distributed entities, such as things, exchange and process information without human intervention. The Internet of Everything (IoE), which is a combination of the IoT technology and the Big Data processing technology through connection with a cloud server, has emerged. As technology elements, such as “sensing technology”, “wired/wireless communication and network infrastructure”, “service interface technology”, and “Security technology” have been demanded for IoT implementation, a sensor network, a Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication, Machine Type Communication (MTC), and so forth have been recently researched.
Such an IoT environment may provide intelligent Internet technology services that create a new value to human life by collecting and analyzing data generated among connected things. IoT may be applied to a variety of fields including smart home, smart building, smart city, smart car or connected cars, smart grid, health care, smart appliances and advanced medical services through convergence and combination between existing Information Technology (IT) and various industrial applications.
Bluetooth low energy (BLE)/Bluetooth network is a wireless personal area network technology, aimed to provide low cost Bluetooth connection between devices. BLE operates in the same Industrial, Scientific & Medical (ISM), license-free, 2.4- to 2.483-GHz frequency band as that of classic Bluetooth, and relays on frequency hopping technology. Certain features of the BLE wireless technology such as, but not limited to ultra-low peak, average and idle mode power consumption, ability to run for years on standard coin-cell batteries, low cost, multi-vendor, interoperability and enhanced range, robustness equal to Classic Bluetooth technology, good real-time features (if a small number of nodes are connected), and very short wake-up/connection time makes it suitable for use in devices such as watches, toys, toothbrush, mobile phones, medical devices and so on.
In the case of data transfer over connectionless BLE networks, certain nodes directly receive data from the transmitting node, some nodes receive data being relayed by other nodes in the network. The node (which is not the destination) that receives the data from another node needs to relay the data to other nodes in the network, so that the data finally reaches the destination. One disadvantage of these connectionless transfer based BLE mesh networks is that more than one node may communicate/transmit data at the same time. This causes interference, which in turn results in loss of data. Another disadvantage of the existing BLE mesh networks is that all nodes listen to the network (i.e. scans the network for messages) all the time. In any communication device that serves as a node in the network, scanning is done at the expense of power. This is even more critical in the case of portable/mobile devices, as the battery life is a major concern.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.